Students welcome new pope with prayer

WALDEN — Lined up in rows and clad in red, the students of Most Precious Blood School sang the musical adaptation of the Prayer of St. Francis on Thursday afternoon.

Comment

By MICHAEL RANDALL

recordonline.com

By MICHAEL RANDALL

Posted Mar. 15, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By MICHAEL RANDALL

Posted Mar. 15, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

WALDEN — Lined up in rows and clad in red, the students of Most Precious Blood School sang the musical adaptation of the Prayer of St. Francis on Thursday afternoon.

"Make me a channel of your peace.

"Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope ..."

It was a fitting way to open a prayer service for Pope Francis, who was elected the 266th head of the Roman Catholic Church one day earlier.

About the time Pope Francis was being introduced to the world on Wednesday, it was also dismissal time for the area's Catholic schools, which meant putting off any services commemorating the historic event until Thursday.

The prayer service was written by third-grade teacher Patti Rose and conducted by her students — who were just being born around the time the last pope was being elected.

Principal Patricia O'Connor said the prayer service was just the latest step in a series of lessons for the children that began when they learned last month that Pope Benedict XVI was going to retire.

The red garb — shirts, slacks, scarves and more — was worn in honor of the cardinals, who wear red and who choose each pope.

"It's to honor them for working so hard to get us a new pope," O'Connor explained to the children.

Among the things the children learned for the prayer service were eight official titles that the pope bears, including Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Supreme Pontiff and Primate of Italy.

"The pope is the No. 1 bishop of Italy," one third-grade girl said, explaining the latter title.

Red was not the only symbolic color at the service. At the conclusion, O'Connor told the kids there were donut treats for them in the hall outside. Their color: white.

O'Connor asked if any of the students knew why that color was picked for the occasion. One third-grade girl still on the stage raised her hand.